OSC v. Cormark Securities Inc., William Jeffrey Kennedy, Marc Judah Bistricer and Saline Investments Ltd. (2022)

Dismissed

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In 2022 the Ontario Securities Commission brought a case against Cormark Securities, its head of equity capital markets and a client over share transactions timed to Canopy Growth's addition to a stock index in 2017. The allegations were an illegal distribution and a failure to deal fairly with the issuer, not insider trading. In November 2024 the Tribunal found that the Commission had not proven any allegation against any respondent.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Ontario Securities Commission began this proceeding on November 9, 2022 before the Capital Markets Tribunal against Cormark Securities Inc., its Head of Equity Capital Markets William Jeffrey Kennedy, and a client, Marc Judah Bistricer, with his company Saline Investments Ltd. It concerned a series of transactions carried out on March 17, 2017, when Canopy Growth Corporation was added to the Toronto Stock Exchange's composite index. Cormark had approached Canopy about taking part with a client in a set of transactions meant to let Canopy raise capital as demand for its shares rose.

The Commission alleged that the transactions amounted to an illegal distribution of Canopy shares, that Cormark and Kennedy failed to deal fairly, honestly and in good faith with Canopy as their client or, in the alternative, acted contrary to the public interest, and that all respondents engaged in other conduct engaging the Tribunal's public interest jurisdiction. It did not allege insider trading or tipping, and an earlier version of this record was tagged insider trading in error. The record now carries no technique tag.

In its November 6, 2024 decision the Tribunal concluded that the Commission had failed to prove any of its allegations against any respondent. A notice correcting a footnote citation followed in April 2026. The decision documents read do not describe an appeal, so the earlier status of appealed is removed; if an appeal exists, a correction can restore it. No penalty or sanction was imposed.

This library holds the matter only as a record of a proceeding that ended without findings. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decision.

Timeline

1. 2023-06-15 Reasons and Decision
2. 2023-06-28 Other
3. 2023-06-28 Reasons and Decision
4. 2023-08-22 Reasons and Decision
5. 2023-11-01 Other
6. 2023-11-15 Reasons and Decision
7. 2023-11-29 Reasons and Decision
8. 2023-11-29 Reasons and Decision
9. 2023-12-21 Reasons and Decision
10. 2024-01-16 Reasons and Decision
11. 2024-03-06 Reasons and Decision
12. 2024-11-06 Reasons and Decision
13. 2024-11-06 Merits decision: no allegation proven

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• Tribunal proceeding
• Reasons and Decision
• Other
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Other
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Merits decision

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.